Mango Gazpacho, Brazilian Stew & Egg-less Triple Ginger Bread

Our friends Susan and Patrick celebrated their eleventh wedding anniversary the other day, and since they're vegans (the vegetarian kind, not the ones from the star Vega!) I made them a totally vegan anniversary dinner.

Chilled Mango Gazpacho

This is a great Floribeño take on a European classic. Florida cuisine used to be called Floribbean, which always sounded like you were stuttering. I like Floribeño a lot better.

3 cups Mango, chopped

1 English Cucumber, peeled, seeded and chopped

1 Red Bell Pepper, chopped

1 cup Coconut Water, not Coconut Milk or Cream

1/2 cup Vegetable Broth

3/4" finger fresh Ginger, minced

1 tsp Curry Powder of choice

1/2 tsp Red Pepper flakes

1 Tbsp Cider Vinegar

2 Tbsp Mint, chopped, plus additional

S&P TT

In a blender, combine 1 cup of mango, half the cucumber, half the bell pepper, coconut milk, broth, ginger, curry powder and vinegar. Puree until smooth. Add the rest of the ingredients and pulse a couple times to combine. But leave it somewhat chunky. Refrigerate at least 2 hours. When served, top with a chiffonade of additional mint.

This is going to become a summertime, or anytime, favorite around here.

Brazilian Black Bean & Mango Stew

This is the simplified, veganized version of a carnivore original from South America, but with all the original flavor. The Tofurkey tm Chorizo flavored meat substitute has all the great flavors of traditional Mexican chorizo, but none of the fat. It even 'dissolves' into a flavor base when you start to cook it, just like the good stuff made south of the border. Fabulous!

2, 15oz cans Black Beans, drained & rinsed

2, 15oz cans Rotel tm with Lime & Cilantro

1 large Red Onion, diced

1 large Yam/Sweet Potato, peeled and cubed

8 oz Tofurkey Chorizo flavored faux meat.

2 cups cubed Mango

Combine beans, Rotel, onion, yam and chorizo, with a couple cups of water and simmer for 30-45 minutes to marry the flavors. In the last 5 minutes, add the mango and cook just to warm it through. Serve over Cumin Rice. For a nicer presentation, add the cubes of mango on top of the plated stew.

Cumin Rice

To your usual 1 cup of rice and two cups of water, add 2-3 Tbsp of whole cumin seeds which have been somewhat cracked in your mortar & pestle, then toasted for a few minutes in a dry skillet. Don't have a mortar & pestle?  Take the seeds for a 3-5 second buzzzzz in your coffee grinder.

Egg-less Triple Gingerbread

For dessert I made this vegan cake, topped with vegan Lemon Curd

1-1/2 cups Whole Wheat flour

1⁄2 teaspoon Baking Powder

1⁄2 teaspoon Baking Soda

1⁄4 teaspoon Salt

1⁄2 teaspoon powdered Ginger

1/4 teaspoon grated fresh Ginger

1/4 cup Sushi Ginger, chopped

1⁄2 teaspoon Cinnamon

1⁄4 cup Vegetable oil or margarine

1⁄2 cup Brown Sugar

1⁄2 cup Light Molasses

1⁄2 cup boiling Water

Prepare 8x8 pan with parchment paper or cooking spray. Preheat oven to 325°F.

In a large bowl SIFT together flour, baking powder, soda, salt, spices and the three gingers; set aside. In another bowl, cream oil/margarine and sugar, and mix well; add molasses, then boiling water.

Combine dry and liquid ingredients and beat well. Pour into prepared pan and bake 40-50 minutes until toothpick comes out clean. Allow to cool. 

 

Top with Ten Minute Lemon Curd (August 24, 2015 post). I made the curd for this dinner using an egg substitute called

The Neat Egg tm

Unlike Egg Beaters tm and similar products, this egg substitute contains no eggs. The ingredient list reads: Chia Seeds, Garbanzo Beans.

For "egg in a dish" applications, where egg is a binder, this stuff works really well -- baking, casseroles, etc. I would not try it in a quiche though...

2 Tbsp water + 1 Tbsp Neat Egg = 1 substitute egg . This forms a sort of gelatinous blob that you then incorporate into a recipe. Make sure you really mix it in well.

When I used Neat Egg to make the Microwave Lemon Curd, the result was virtually indistinguishable from using 'real' eggs. Although, as I say, make sure it's well incorporated. I got some brown bits in the curd, when the Neat Egg was not completely dissolved into the egg/sugar mix. The Neat Egg curd didn't set up as well as I liked. Next time I'll use 2-1/2 substitute eggs.